Principal’s Welcome

Dermot Healy, Principal

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine’s website.

For those who may be curious as to the origin of the school name, I offer a little history lesson! Inbhear Scéine derives its name from the mythological period of the Invasions, circa 2000 B.C. Amerghin, poet and leader of the Milesians, set sail for Ireland from Galicia in Spain. We are told, that as they attempted to land in Ireland, the druids of the Tuatha De Danann conjured up a great mist and land and sea became one whirling mass of cloud. Many people died in the chaos, among them Amerhgin’s wife, Scéine. Amerghin was stricken with grief at the death of his beloved Princess and said “The harbour where we land, the name of Scéine will be on it”. And so it was. A break appeared in the fog and they sailed into a beautiful inlet and they named it Inbhear Scéine. Setting his right foot on land at Inbhear Scéine, Amerghin made his famous incantation which is reproduced in our Students Journal each year. Inbhear Scéine is, we believe, Kenmare Bay.

And so to the present, Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine is a second-level Community School, set in the town of Kenmare. It has inherited and it maintains a Catholic ethos but is open and welcoming to students of all religious faiths and none. It is a co-educational school and it caters for approximately 500 students from the greater Kenmare area i.e. a radius of approximately 20 miles from Kenmare town. We have been serving the educational needs of our community since 2001 when our school was formed following the amalgamation of Holy Cross College and Kenmare Vocational School.

In Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine we nurture the uniqueness of our students and we strive to educate each young person to reach their potential. We emphasise ‘achieving your best’ in all walks of life, be it academic, social, sports, music etc. We also pay attention to the development of life skills – the inter-personal and intra-personal skills that are so vital for living a rounded, balanced life.

Our students continue to achieve outstanding examination results and it is a huge source of pride to see them continuing to excel in their chosen third-level institutions as well on the national and international stage/arena in so many different ways. This reflects well on the excellent foundations established here in Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine.

We have developed new opportunities to support the needs of students: we introduced the Transition Year and Leaving Cert Applied Programmes to complement the traditional Leaving Cert. I hope we can continue to offer all of these into the future as each option has its own specific merits, as you will see later in the website.

As you know, school life is multi-faceted. We expect our students to reach their academic potential but we are very aware that education encompasses more than academic results. Our students are provided with the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of extra-curricular and sporting activities during their school life. These activities range from Musicals, Talent shows, Debating, GAA, Rugby, Athletics, Basketball, School Tours, visits to Theatre and Cinema. The list is endless. As I write this, I cannot but think of the wonderful School Arts’ Week that runs each Spring- a week that includes activities ranging from Poetry Writing Workshops, Short-story competitions, String Quartet Performances, Concerts, break-time and lunch-time musical performances, Dance workshops, ‘Movie Moments’, Drama performances, all culminating in a Céili Mor. For all these activities (and more!) to happen in the school, it requires the generosity and dedication of the teachers who volunteer their time and talents. I take this opportunity to thank our staff for their commitment to establishing a wonderful culture of inspiring and motivating activities.

Over the years we have raised thousands of Euros for charity. We have trained our senior students to become mentors of our younger students. We have developed a Code of Courtesy. We have participated successfully in the Young Entrepreneur Programme and sent students as Carers for the Sick on the annual Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes, accompanied by teachers. We have a very successful School Council and Green School Committee. Through these various activities we foster self-esteem and self-belief in our students, qualities that will benefit them for life.

We have a dedicated and caring staff who takes great pride in our school. Teachers will support and encourage your sons and daughters during their time in our school and they will work with you, the parent, to help these young people to achieve their potential. We have a tradition of outstanding Pastoral Care in the School where we look out for each other and offer support in times of struggle and difficulty. We want students to be happy, to achieve academically and to develop their many talents, aptitudes and skills. When their time in Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine is complete, we hope our students will be model citizens of whatever society they find themselves in, that they will be people of sensitivity who have a capacity to care. We also hope that they will have the personal resources and inner strength to forge fulfilling lives amid the complexity of today’s world. These are the aspirations which fire us as we go about our daily work here in Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine, in this very beautiful part of the world called Kenmare.